Scouting Party
Posted by Nancy MacCoon on July 9, 2004
Q: Ants follow a pheromone trail left by the scout ant. How does the scout ant find the food initially? I've been told it's random. I put a spot of honey near an ant trail and not one ant found it. I find dead bees on the tennis court and the ants have found it. How does the first ant find it so it can lead the rest of the ant colony?
A: You were told correctly, they do find food randomly. Just how close an ant must be to actually smell food is uncertain but their foraging technique is to move about in an erratic pattern until they discover food. My guess about the honey is that either they never got close enough to smell it or they weren't interested in honey if they did find it. Keep in mind that lots and lots of ants foraging about in an area probably do a pretty good job of discovering most of the available food.
John Wiessinger ( July 10, 2004)